Ah, so that’s why Home Affairs Minister K Shanmugam brought significant attention to Islamic radicalism in his address yesterday at a symposium.
The Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) just released a statement regarding the arrest of 27 Bangladeshi construction workers under the Internal Security Act. In the first reported case of foreigners in Singapore preparing attacks overseas, the Bangladeshi nationals arrested were found to be considering armed jihad back in their homeland.
The men — 26 of whom have been sent back to Bangladesh — were arrested on Nov 16 and Dec 1 last year. They had not planned any terrorist attacks here, but some of them had encouraged members of their religious study group to wage war against the Bangladeshi government.
The religious study group itself were extremist sympathizers, donating money to groups believed to be linked to extremist groups in Bangladesh and subscribed to radical teachings. They supported the ideology of known extremist groups such as Al-Qaeda and the Islamic State.
One of the men arrested was not a member of the group, but MHA states that he was supportive of extremist preachers and was found to be in the process of becoming radicalised, possessing jihadi-related material and the such.
“The Government takes a very serious view of any form of support for terrorism and will take firm and decisive action against any person who engages in any activity in support of terrorism,” asserted MHA.
“Foreigners are guests of our country and they should not abuse this privilege and use Singapore as a base to import their own domestic political agenda and carry out activities in pursuit of such an agenda.”
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